Home > Plurality of Voters Say Conservatives Have More Influence in the Media Than Liberals; Findings of a National Survey Conducted for Media Matters for America

Plurality of Voters Say Conservatives Have More Influence in the Media Than Liberals; Findings of a National Survey Conducted for Media Matters for America

Media Matters for America recently commissioned a poll by the Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group to assess how Americans get their news about national government and politics. The poll also explores attitudes toward various media outlets and the relationship between news source choices and political and public policy awareness.

The poll of 1,010 voters, conducted from March 30 - April 3, 2004, provides a snapshot of how the news media and the American public interact -- including Americans' media preferences; the reasons for those preferences; concerns about the spread of conservative misinformation throughout the media; opinions of specific media outlets and personalities; and views on media responsibility.

The poll will also serve as a Media Matters for America baseline for examining changes over time in the public's media choices and attitudes. It will help media monitoring entities, including Media Matters for America, track gains and losses in the popularity and credibility of various media sources, as well as the public's views regarding the ideological composition of the media. Perhaps most important, the poll will provide the baseline for gauging public awareness of the pervasiveness of conservative misinformation. We intend to revisit these issues in the future; for now, the Garin-Hart-Yang poll provides a wealth of insight into the state of the media today.